Washington Open subject of Cameron's 'Take Flight' video series; Barrett headlines Pre HJ, & Eugene news...

University of Washington middle distance runner James Cameron has put together another  highlight package of video clips from last weekend's Washington Open at Husky Track.

While the video primarily features Husky athletes at last week's meet,  2012 US Olympian Kibwe Johnson (left/photo by Paul Merca) is prominent in the piece, as Cameron captures the intricate spinning motion of Johnson throwing the hammer.

One of the most dramatic shots of the video is of Husky vaulter Tori Franzen's pole snapping, which he captured using a GoPro camera mounted on a pole.

The Nike Prefontaine Classic, which will be held May 30-31at Hayward Field in Eugene, announced Monday its field for the women's high jump, featuring Arizona alum and silver medalist at both last year's world championships and the 2012 Olympics, Brigetta Barrett.

She'll face off against 2012 Olympic champ Anna Chicherova and 2013 world champ Svetlana Shkolina.

The 31-year old Chicherova has the highest PB in the field at 6-9 1/2 (2.07m), and holds the stadium and meet record of 6-7 1/2 (2.02m) set in winning the 2012 Pre title.

Additionally, all three medalists from the world indoors in Sopot: co-champions Maria Kuchina of Russia and Kamila Licwinko of Poland, along with Spain's Ruth Beitia.

You can read the release here.

Finally, insidethegames.biz reports that Eugene is one of three cities interested in hosting the 2019 IAAF world track & field championships.

Eugene will present paperwork to the IAAF Council, which is concluding its two-day meeting Tuesday in Dakar, Senegal, along with Barcelona, Spain, and Doha, Qatar.

Keep in mind that this is only a preliminary step (Eugene must submit a formal bid packet to the IAAF), but it does indicate to the casual observer that both the city of Eugene and USA Track & Field, which as the national governing body must back the bid of any US city wishing to hold the event, are serious.  

Given that Eugene is hosting this summer's world junior championship, as well as organizing the 2016 world indoor championships in Portland, don't think that Vin Lananna and the TrackTown USA folks aren't satisfied with having both events--they're looking to hit a home run, despite the fact that the two strikes against Eugene are the size of Hayward Field, and the lack of hotel space in the Eugene/Springfield area.

Doha and Barcelona are expected to be the early favorites, but there may be pressure from within the council to take the meet to the USA, which has never hosted the IAAF's flagship event.  In fact, the closest the meet's been to the United States was in 2001, when Edmonton hosted the world championships.

You can read Ken Goe's post on it here.